Black or Silver
by SaraCarstairs
Summary: ALL HUMAN. Tessa Grey moves to London after her aunt's death and attends the Institute. She needs to learn the ranks and makes the mistake of messing with the Shadowhunters. A group of higher class families whose children attend the school. Tessa will not cower but stand up for herself. But what happens when foe becomes friend.


The skyline of New York looked beautiful as the sun descended under the horizon. Tessa Gray sat by her beloved window seat as it was pelted with droplets of rain, which coated the slick glass pane. The warmth of the apartment had steamed up the window; Tessa rested her cheek against the icy glass and let the tears that she had been holding since the funeral roll down her cheeks. Bitterness and resentment were overshadowed by the anguish of her aunt's unexpected death. Nate, her brother was still in his apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, stoned and completely out of it. She stood, sick and tired of sitting. The room was completely empty, as were the kitchen, her bedroom and all the other rooms in the house. The place where she was born had learned to walk to talk, to dance, to sing, had learned French and discovered her love for reading. If she closed her eyes she could picture herself sitting on her window seat like Jane Austen and read 'a tale of two cities'. Her home. The only recollection of her mother she had, the warmth of her smile and the softness of her hands when she was rocked to sleep. The house felt like an abyss, empty and cold a quiet so deafening that she felt like screaming. She had packed her bag a few days before when the lawyer had turned up.

He was an ancient man with a pin stripped suit. Snowy clumps of hair covered his head and the blue in his eyes were flecked with gold. His face resembled a withered apple and the wrinkles on his face sagged. Dark circles ringed his eyes and the rest of his body looked as thin as his face. Skeletal fingers shook and were clenching around a thin stack of papers. Pages were held together by a fine gray paper clip and looked as if they had been wet, torn then dried out leaving a creased and crumpled muddle.

"I am here in the affair of your aunt's recent death," he had said.

"Your aunt wanted you to have this," he had said.

There was no sound coming from his lips. Nothing that would have made the aching sense of loss in my chest goes away. He began reading out loud.

_'I Harriet Moore, hereby give my niece Theresa Elizabeth Adele Gray full possession of my inheritance once she reaches the age of 18 years. I hereby place the guardianship of Theresa Elizabeth Adele Gray to my friend and well-known lawyer Loretta Blackwell. She will from now on live in England were she will attend the institute until she graduates. The house and the school are already paid for in the circumstance that I should pass away. Theresa in my absence from this world, you shall take my blessings and my love. You shall follow your heart because it will lead her on to the right path. May the lord watch over us as when we are absent from one another.'_

Since then she had felt nothing no sadness, no pain, no angriness. Just a never ending void of emptiness that stretched for miles and miles. As if you were walking through fog and once you saw something in the shadows you ran and clutched for it until you realized that it was not anything but a echo. Just the darkness mirrored in the fog. Then the feeling of desolation returns and consumes your entire being until there is nothing left. A drunken Brother who is too high on whatever he smoked last night to grieve. Too busy with gambling to remember his little sister. I have lost everything. Everything.

The flight from New York to Heathrow airport, London was about six hours and it mostly consisted of Tessa reading her old dog eared copy of 'a tale of two cities' and listening to angry music on her iPod. She felt a light tap on her shoulder and looked up to find a stewardess looking at her with a sweet, fake smile plastered on her lips. They were layered with sticky lip gloss and layers of mascara crusted on her eyelashes. She would have been pretty if she hadn't put so much effort into trying. 'We are Landing in a few minutes would you please turn off all your electronic devices." She walked away and shortly after the announcement from the pilot blared through the speakers. When the plane landed she grabbed her bag from the overhead compartment and hoisted it over her shoulder. Weaving through the masses of people she made her way to the exit where she was looking for her bag. It was made of white leather and had the initials of her mother printed on it on a metal nameplate. It was coming around the carousel and she grabbed on to it attempting to drag it off. It however proved to be too heavy and she looked up thankfully as a girl helped her to drag it off. She had long black hair that reached just below her waist. And cornflower blue eyes. She looked delicate like china with a small nose and fine bone structure. Her eyelashes were long and dark and set off her eyes brilliantly. Tessa had never seen herself as pretty or even beautiful. She always felt plain not ugly or pretty. She always felt like the girl who stands at the end of the crowd or the person who is easily forgotten after a conversation. She smiled at Tessa, white teeth sparkling. She stretched out her hand.

"Hello, Cecily Herondale."

"Tessa Gray."

She appeared nice enough with her thin waist and expensive clothes she didn't seem anything like the stereotypical rich girl.

"Are you her on holiday?"

"No I'm just starting school here. I think it's a place called the institute. The director is-"

"Charlotte Branwell, I know I go there too."

"That's great; at least I'll see a familiar face."

"Where do you live?"

Tessa rattled off an address and Cecily beamed.

"Then were practically neighbors. Do you want me to drop you off at your house? Will and his friends will be there too. Will's my brother by the way. I think you'll hate him. But Jem is brilliant. The others aren't bad either and my boyfriend is as well. Am I talking too much?"

"No, not at all."

They walked out of the terminal and out the exit were there was a man in a black suit waiting for us. He was holding up a white paper with the name _Herondale_ scrawled across it. When he saw them he grabbed the luggage.

"No you really don't have to-"

"That's what we pay him for." Cecily whispered.

Tessa blanched at the thought. Why would somebody pay another person to carry their luggage? She nodded and walked out tagging behind the other girl. She heard the sound of Cecily's phone ringing and the girl talking to someone with irritation.

"Well it seems as if my brother and his dear friends are having a slumber party tonight and you will not have to meet him for another few hours. The car was dark and sleek like a panther with tinted windows. The man held open the door and Tessa stumbled in while Cecily slid gracefully onto the seat. The car was driving steadily and soon it had stopped in front of a big townhouse.

"You live here?" Cecily asked wrinkling her nose.

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing…"

Tessa walked up the front steps and Cecily called out to her. "See you Monday Tessie."


End file.
